Benchmarking

“Benchmarking”  a Powerful Tool For Positive Change

Here we focus our attention on studies that assess stakeholder perceptions of quality. The principles of stakeholder benchmarking studies are well suited to assist colleges and universities in the development of a comprehensive, long-term assessment strategy. Stakeholder benchmarking is effective because it addresses two aspects essential to the continuous quality improvement process: (a) identifying the factors most important for improving overall performance and (b) initiating and sustaining the process of change essential for continuous quality improvement. Study results provide powerful leverage for positive change and continuous improvement.

Benchmarking Assesses What is Most Important

Successful benchmarking assessment studies evaluate the degree to which an organization is successfully fulfilling its mission from the perspective of key stakeholders. It is essential that assessment studies focus on mission critical factors. A successful and high-quality benchmarking study will identify and assess the factors critical to the successful fulfillment of the mission. Experts who assure that survey instruments capture the factors essential to the mission of the discipline determine the content of the studies.

Benchmarking Challenges Long-Held Beliefs

Benchmarking studies provide a comprehensive internal and comparative evaluation of performance serving to identify strengths and weaknesses. Educators (and others as well) have a tendency to overestimate their strengths and underestimate their weaknesses (evidenced by the 50 or so schools who contend to be in the "top 20" of any ranking). Little progress can be made when performance evaluation is left to a debate based solely on experience and anecdotal evidence.

Benchmarking studies provide credible results to guide and motivate those in a position to have the greatest impact on quality improvement. When professionals review benchmarking results, inevitably two types of conclusions are reached. First, a percentage of the results reinforce what professionals already believe, based on their previous education, training, and experience in the field. The difference is that now there is credible, comprehensive, comparable evidence to support what was previously opinion or supposition.

Second, professionals are inevitably presented with results that challenge their long-held beliefs. These results are typically questioned because the evidence is contrary to long-held assumptions. Once the credibility of the results has been established, professionals face the challenge of integrating the new information into their overall view of performance. These results typically have the greatest impact on the improvement process. Credible results provide evidence for professionals to rethink their assumptions about strengths and weaknesses. It requires them to incorporate new insights into a revised perspective of problems and opportunities. Benchmarking results challenge professionals to address the issues most critical.

Benchmarking Informs Decision-Making

Few organizations have unlimited resources to invest in all aspects of their operation. Each year professionals are faced with making resource allocation decisions that will result in the accomplishment of their mission. One of the major barriers is the inability of managers to shift resources from historically established budget lines. Stakeholder benchmarking studies can provide information that details the level of performance as well as the importance of factors to stakeholders' perceptions of quality. Identifying low performance factors that have great impact on perceived quality allows managers to focus their attention and deploy their resources in the most efficient and effective manner. It prioritizes for the decision-maker where an investment of resources will have the greatest impact on improving performance.

It is essential to understand both areas of strength and weakness and the importance of survey factors to overall satisfaction of stakeholders. For example, the factor with the lowest performance score may not be the factor that is most important to constituents' overall satisfaction. By identifying the factors that are "predictors of" (most highly correlated with) overall satisfaction in order of importance, educators are able to identify exactly where their resources will have the most positive impact on performance. Solid indicators on performance value and identifying factor importance provides managers with the evidence they need to shift, or lobby for, additional resources.

Benchmarking Motivates Staff

Even the most well-intentioned staff members become frustrated and discouraged when they receive little feedback regarding the impact of their efforts. Benchmarking motivates staff in four ways:

1.   It reinforces performance. Evidence of good performance is an opportunity to congratulate and reward staff for a job well done, serving to motivate staff to maintain and improve performance.

2.   It identifies mission critical factors essential for quality improvement and provides evidence of where their efforts will have the greatest positive impact on improving performance. Identifying areas where performance is below that of peers/competitors challenges staff to improve by tapping into their natural competitive nature.

3.   It provides meaningful performance comparisons. Comparative results with selected peers schools remove all doubt that it can't be done better. With evidence that others perform at a higher level, staff typically rise to the challenge and commit themselves to improvement.

4.   It provides continuous assessment. With a continuous benchmarking process, staff members come to know what needs to be improved and recognize when and how their performance will be assessed in the future which has proven to be a powerful motivator.

Each of the outcomes of benchmarking described above empowers college and university professionals to effectively make a change on their campuses. Sound evidence from high quality studies can be used to address the need to break from ineffective practices and to begin a process of continuous improvement. EBI is the Quality Benchmarking Catalyst in Higher Education.

It is emphasized by Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) that benchmarking is a powerful management tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness." Paradigm Blindness can be summed up as the mode of thinking, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way.

Benchmarking for universities is the same basic idea.   It is the continuous process of identifying, adapting and implementing the practices and processes that can result in improved performance. It is a learning process primarily, that involves measuring the gaps, first between your municipality and the best performing municipality, and second, between current performance and previous performance. Quite simply, benchmarking involves the process of:

• examining how we do certain things,

• examining how other people do those things;

• review each process,

• take mental notes on how they do it,

• compare it to the way we do it or others do it,

• determine which way we think would be the best way

(best practice) of doing it for ourselves,

• implementing the best practice for ourselves, and

• once implemented, begin the whole review process

again.